Standard procedures for preparing tissue samples for microscopic examination involve contacting the tissue sample with various fluids, embedding the tissue samples in paraffin, and slicing paraffin-embedded tissue samples very thinly with a microtome. Detailed examples of the preparation of tissue samples for histological examination are fully described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,080,869; 5,665,398; and 5,928,934; which are incorporated herein by reference.
In the practice of histopathology and the preparation of cellular tissue materials for examination with the microscope, preparatory steps have an important impact on the availability of microscopic details that form the basis of proof for a diagnosis. For example, it may be critical to maintain orientation of the tissue specimen during the preparatory phases. In addition, movement of the specimen during preparation, either during collection and transfer to the lab or during laboratory processing in a tissue processing cassette, may damage the specimen. Lastly, cross contamination may occur during the processing steps if a standard tissue sample processing cassette is utilized because very small specimens may slip through the usual openings of the cassette.
When tissue materials are collected, as with a biopsy, there are specific criteria or judgments made of what might be suspicious of showing a disease process. The “suspect” area of the biopsy is sampled with the intention of revealing a tissue diagnosis as the basis of a treatment method or approach. The contemporary methods of tissue biopsy, in the most modern approach, use image guidance techniques or with direct vision for surface lesions where a “punch biopsy” of skin or tumor surfaces are harvested, or needle “through cut” biopsies, or aspiration biopsies of fluid, or incision biopsies of surface lesions, or “remote” skinny needle biopsies with ultrasound, MRI, direct video or radio-graphic guidance to an imaging system that will provide imaging of “hidden” suspect tumor targets deep with body cavities or organs. The resultant “captured” tissue may be solid, semi-solid, or liquid, as with cavity fluids containing traces of surface cells, to be determined benign, malignant, or inflammatory.
It is of vital importance to orient the tissue in a fixed and precise way that will demonstrate anatomical relationship of importance to adjacent organ tissues or surfaces; all in relationship to the disease process. For instances, if a gastroenterologist or any other special-ologist visualized a suspicious area to biopsy, the ologist alone knows what was up or down, right or left, adjacent the stomach or other anatomical landmark.
Consequently, it is desired to produce a device to retain, orient, and prevent cross contamination of a tissue sample during the preparatory phases of a histological examination.